Abby Weyr
Forks Trip Day 15 Wednesday 18 Sep 13
Hoh
Rainforest Spruce Trail and Ruby Beach
Had breakfast
at the diner associated with Charlie in Twilight. Returned the too small
T-shirt to Leppell’s, they have larger size blank T-Shirt and will put the
image on it. I can pick up later today or tomorrow. They agreed that the sizes
run small for that company.
Plan is to
hike the Spruce Trail in Hoh Rainforest today and then to Ruby Beach. Just
before turning off of 101 realized I’d left water bottles in room…another
forgetful moment. Stopped at Peak 6 store and bought some water. Managed not to
look around the store again. Weather was clearing up, going to be a good sunny
day.
The Spruce Trail
hike is 1.2 miles and fairly flat. It starts off in older forest area by
visitor center. Trees similar to what saw on Saturday on Hall of Mosses trail.
As go along the path drops down a little to what was the river bed. The area
changes from old shade loving plants to younger forest life. Start seeing white
barked trees, grass and ferns. The path goes to the river and follows it for a
little ways before heading back to the visitor center. It crosses over a spring
fed creek with really clear running water. Didn’t stop to take so many pictures
today so the hike took 1.5 hours. It was kind of sad to see so many people on
the trail, just walking…quickly. How can they enjoy the scenery that way? How
can they feel the majesty of the forest?
Back at the
car I had a snack before heading for Ruby Beach. That was a great visit. A
little hike to beach and climbing over driftwood logs to get to beach. There
were some nice views of the sea stacks along the way. There was a ‘pond’ back
from beach that the drainage path cuts across the beach. I decided to go the
drier way first to some smaller sea stacks.
Bright sun on the water was hard on
the eyes. Used the polarizer lens on the camera. The smaller stacks were not
all that interesting. Did see some interesting ‘colored’ rocks on the way.
Walked across the water closer to the where the water was coming up and
drainage water not so deep and feet only got a little wet. The larger sea
stacks on this side were more interesting. There were some tide pools, but I
didn’t see any critters in them. A young lady climbing around on the rocks
pointed out a wood piece that looked like a beached whale. Nice to hear someone
else seeing things like that.
On the way
back stopped and chatted with a fellow Nikon camera user visiting from
Manhattan. I crossed the drainage path and got wetter feet. Forgot to bring a
change of socks with me. Do have a towel and dry pair of shoes. Wondering if I’ll
forget my way home and just keep driving south. Time to head to motel and food.
Made it back before Leppell’s closed so got my larger size T-Shirt. Watched
reruns of NCIS on USA network while worked on pictures and blog.
